She could barely discern the difference, but the pressure of Phil’s hands against her chin shifted ever so slightly, tipping her face just a little more up to his.
Grace backed away so fast she bumped the chair with the backs of her knees, sending it askew. She rested one palm on the table to her left, barely able to still hold Dale with her right. Phil’s hands fell to his sides.
“You fill the kitchen sink with warm water and I’ll get some laundry detergent. No, wait. I still have dishes in the sink. I ran off so fast tonight, I didn’t do the dishes first. I’m so embarrassed. Here, you hold Dale.”
Not giving Phil an opportunity to protest, Grace thrust Dale at him, giving him only a second to grasp Dale before he would risk dropping the angel. In one continuous motion, Grace turned around and reached the sink in three strides. She piled the dirty dishes on the counter, wiped out the sink, and then filled it with warm water. She squatted down and reached into the cupboard for the box of detergent and stood. “You can bring Dale now; I’m ready for her.”
Phil shuffled to her side, slowly lowering Dale into the warm water. Instead of stepping back, he turned toward her.
Grace kept her attention focused fully on Dale, beneath the surface of the water.
“I’m sorry, Grace. Please, don’t be upset. I promise that will never happen again. I was out of line.”
“It’s okay,” she mumbled, not moving her head. She couldn’t look at Phil now. She didn’t want to see his eyes, the eyes that would make her change her mind about what was happening in her heart. “Let’s just forget about it and get this done. Pretty soon we’ll have Dale back to normal again. You know where the starch is by now. Would you like to get it out? Use two of those scoops, and you can start heating it up so we can finish tonight.”
“Okay.”
Without asking for help, Phil measured the right amount of starch into the pot, then went into the bathroom to add the water rather than get in her way while she washed Dale in the kitchen sink. Also without asking, he immediately began to heat it up on the stove, stirring while it heated, just as he’d seen her do the other times she’d made the starch mixture.
“How do I know when it’s ready?”
Grace held Dale up out of the water and held the wing section up to the light, trying to determine if all the solvent residue had come out. “See how it’s kind of cloudy? When it goes clear, then it’s done. It has to boil for a couple of minutes. You’ll be able to see the difference when it happens.”
“Okay.”
The sight of Phil bending over and looking into the pot, trying to analyze the color and consistency of the starch mixture as it approached the boiling point, stopped her in her tracks.
Grace had seldom seen a man standing over the stove, but, while Phil did look out of place, he appeared comfortable as he stirred, then held the spoon up, and watched the thickening liquid drip back into the pot.
She cleared her throat. “Since you’re having so much fun making that, did you know that if you didn’t put in so much cornstarch and put in some lemon juice and sugar with that, you could make lemon sauce for Chinese Lemon Chicken?”
He grinned, setting off those charming laugh lines at the corners of his fascinating eyes. “Really? That’s neat. I love Lemon Chicken. If this is all there is to it, I can do that. Wouldn’t Neil be surprised? Although he wouldn’t believe me that I made it myself. Do you have a recipe? Can you show me how to do the chicken, too?”
“Sure.”
The word barely spoken, Grace snapped her mouth shut. After what nearly happened only a few minutes ago, she couldn’t believe that she’d just offered to give him a cooking lesson, another time where she would be alone with him.
Not that she didn’t trust Phil; she trusted him more than she’d ever trusted anyone in her life.
It was herself she didn’t trust.
“That’s great! How about Saturday, while Neil is watching the hockey games? Just tell me what to buy, and I’ll have it ready. All we have to do is stick our heads around the corner to cheer appropriately a few times, and then he won’t miss either one of us. And just think of the great supper we’ll have, although that means I get an extra cooking night. Wait a minute. I don’t know if that’s fair.”
His grin widened. Grace couldn’t think to reply.
Phil leaned down to investigate the starch mixture. “I think it’s thick enough, and I see what you mean about it going clear. If I put my coat and boots and stuff back on and went outside on the balcony and stirred it outside, do you think it will cool faster, so we can dunk Dale in it sooner? Even if all I do is put the pot in the snow, that will cool it down somewhat.”
“Good idea. Let’s do that.”
Phil donned his outdoor clothing and disappeared through the balcony door while Grace wrung Dale out and blotted out as much excess moisture as she could with a bath towel.
As she pressed Dale with the towel, out of the corner of her eye she watched Phil through the sliding-glass door leading to the balcony. Almost as if he didn’t have a care in the world, he moved the pot to different places in the snow, stirred, then moved the pot again as the heat melted the snow. With every move, the snow melted less and less quickly, and he moved the pot more and more slowly.
After awhile, she couldn’t stand it. Grace pulled on her coat and boots and joined him.
“You look like you’re having so much fun out here. How’s it coming?”
She reached down to stir the mixture and test it herself, but stopped with her hand hovering in the air. “You made a picture of a Christmas tree with the pot.”
“Yeah, and I almost finished, too. I just have to touch up the one side, but the pot isn’t warm enough to melt the snow anymore.”
Grace sighed, pretending to be annoyed rather than admit how his playfulness charmed her. “This just proves that men are little boys who got tall.”
The grin never left his face. “So what’s your point?”
Grace giggled as they poked holes in the snow in the indents that comprised the Christmas tree, making ornaments. Together they piled snow on the top of the tree to mold it into the best image of Dale they could, before they went inside.
The starching process progressed quicker this time than the last time, no doubt learned from repetition. They finished just before midnight. Even though it was late and they were both obviously tired, knowing that Dale was fixed once more and all would be fine filled Grace with a tremendous amount of satisfaction. Despite all the work, Grace simply enjoyed her evening with Phil. She’d had fun, and she knew he had, too, even though they both had been fighting back yawns for the past hour.
After everything was packed up and Dale was once more in place, supported by the network of books and chopsticks to hold her up over the heat vent while she dried, Phil put his coat back on for the third time that evening. On the way to the door, he became more and more quiet and increasingly somber.
Grace opened the door and stepped out into the hall, but Phil didn’t follow.
He spoke so quietly she could barely hear him. “Grace, I don’t want to sound like your sister, but I have to ask. Why is it that you’re not married?”
Visions of the two marriages closest to her flashed through her mind. Grace loved her father as any daughter would, but seeing her parents’ relationship from an adult perspective, her mother was trapped in a marriage to a man who demanded much and gave so little, as was her sister. Grace had decided long ago that she would not follow the pattern of her family. Both her mother and her sister had married too young, without having achieved enough experience or maturity to make an intelligent decision on the most important choice a person would ever make.
Grace was in no rush to get married. Over and over she told herself that she would not make the same mistake. God desired a marriage to last a lifetime, and she wanted hers to be under God’s blessings and God’s guidelines for her marriage, along with every other aspect of her life. When God gave her the right
man, and after enough time passed when she knew he would not dominate her as she’d seen her father and her brother-in-law do to her mother and her sister, only then would she consider marriage. When God showed her without a shadow of a doubt that He’d picked the right man for her.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I guess the right man hasn’t asked me.”
“Oh,” he muttered, then cleared his throat. “Good night, Grace.”
He turned and walked to the elevator, pushed the button, and waited. Just as the elevator door opened, it occurred to Grace that she hadn’t confirmed their plans for Friday night. Phil had already stepped into the elevator, so she ran down the hall, hoping to catch him.
The door was almost closed by the time she got there, with only a crack of light showing. Grace aimed her finger at the button and started to move toward it, but as the door clicked closed, she heard Phil muttering from inside, saying what sounded like him calling Neil an idiot.
She never did hit the button, but remained frozen in one spot, one finger poised in midair, as the elevator began its descent.
Grace returned to her apartment, more tired than she’d been in years, but somehow she knew it was going to be a long night.
fourteen
Phillip held the earring box up to his ear. “What do you think?”
Neil shook his head. “Not your color.”
Grace poked Neil in the arm. “Stop it, Neil.” She turned to Phillip. “I think your mom will love them. She loves purple.”
Phillip held up another box. “Or maybe these? These are plain gold, so they’ll go with anything.”
Neil smirked and crossed his arms. “You know, Phil, I can’t believe you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet.”
“What are you talking about? There’s still over two weeks until Christmas. I’ve got lots of time. Besides, I plan to finish the rest of my shopping today. I’d like to know how you did your shopping so quickly. You hate shopping worse than I do.”
Neil grinned. “I did all my shopping on-line or by phone this year. In one day. What I didn’t have shipped direct is getting delivered to my door, in plenty of time for Christmas.”
“That might work for your brothers and your friends, but what about your mom?”
“I got her a one-year membership for those Heartsong books that Grace reads all the time. Grace really likes them, so I thought my mom would, too.”
“I think my mom already gets them. I better stick with the earrings. What about you, Grace? Are you all done with your shopping?”
She shook her head. “No, but I just have to get something for the drawing at work. I got the bank manager, and I really don’t know what to buy him that costs under five dollars. That’s the limit we set.”
Neil pointed down the mall. “While Phil pays for the earrings, why don’t we go down to the dollar store? They’ve got lots of cheap novelty stuff.”
“Great idea. I also have to get stuff for my Sunday school class. Phil, want to meet us there? You’re going to be in line a long time from the looks of things.”
Phillip glanced briefly to the lineup, guessing eight people would be ahead of him. “Sounds good to me.”
He watched Neil and Grace walk down the aisle and quickly become lost in the crowd.
They weren’t holding hands. If he were with Grace in a crowded mall, and if he were dating her, he would be holding her hand. Actually, even if the mall wasn’t crowded, Phillip would still be holding her hand.
A year ago, when he didn’t know Grace, he hadn’t understood the relationship between Neil and Grace. Now that he knew her, he understood it even less. In many ways, Phillip thought he knew Grace better than Neil did. He knew her hopes of going to night school and working her way up into a supervisory position at the bank. He knew her dreams of her ministry at the church, both through her Sunday school class and the ever-growing ladies’ ministry that was now reaching out to their community. They’d prayed together for the salvation of her family. She’d even shed a few tears and shared a number of the heartaches and frustrations in her life. In the same way, Phillip had told Grace things he’d never even told Neil, his best friend since childhood.
Phillip knew all Grace was waiting for was the right man to ask for her hand in marriage.
Neil didn’t know what he had in the palm of his hand.
If he’d been holding her hand. . .
Which he wasn’t.
By the time Phillip paid for his mother’s Christmas gift, Grace and Neil were already on their way back from the dollar store, and they met halfway in the mall. Phillip picked up one more gift for his family’s gift exchange to complete his Christmas shopping, and they were done.
Unlike any other Saturday for the past couple of months, tonight Grace had plans to go out to dinner with her coworkers, making this the first time in over a month that Phillip wouldn’t be with her on Saturday night. Even though they’d spent the entire day together, already Phillip felt the loss.
Since their shopping was done and Grace was going out for dinner, they dropped her off in front of her apartment. If it were Phillip driving, he would have parked his car and walked her inside. But, since Neil was driving and didn’t see an open spot in the visitor parking, rather than parking down the block, Neil waited in the drop-off zone by the curb until Grace unlocked the main door. The moment the door closed behind her, he drove off.
“Guess it’s just you and me, tonight, my man,” Neil said as he pulled into traffic.
“Yeah,” Phillip muttered, staring blankly out the window. “You and me and the hockey game.”
Neil grinned from ear to ear. “Just like old times. The Kings are playing the Canucks tonight. It’s going to be a great game.”
Phillip didn’t say much while Neil quoted game stats and caught him up on everything he missed in the past month, when Phillip had spent every day with Grace instead of sitting in front of the television with Neil.
With the game starting in ten minutes, Neil parked himself on the couch as soon as they arrived home to wait through the pregame comments and the national anthems.
Finally, Phillip couldn’t stand it anymore. He sat on the other couch and crossed his arms over his chest. “Look at yourself, Neil. I know Grace isn’t here tonight, but you do the same thing if she’s here or not. Is this the way you’re going to be when you’re married, with your face buried in the tele-vision all the time?”
“Married?”
Phillip dragged his hand over his face, then cleared his throat. “Neil, you’ve been dating Grace for the past year. Neither of you see anyone else. Don’t you think that when a relation-ship goes that way, what you’re heading for is marriage?”
“I never thought about getting married. I’m fine the way things are.”
Phillip’s stomach tightened. Neil may have been fine with the way things were, but he shouldn’t have been. Neil should have been eager to spend time with Grace and build the relationship—eager to do things for her and looking toward the future, especially at their age. Instead, it had been Phillip who spent time with Grace every day. Many times Neil had opportunity to see Grace but had chosen to go do his own thing without her. Quite frankly, Phillip couldn’t understand it.
Phillip swept one hand through the air to encompass their messy living room. “Is this the way you want to live for the rest of your life? Haven’t you ever thought about settling down? A wife? Kids? Wouldn’t you like to give your life some meaning?”
“Meaning?” Neil’s blank stare told Phillip what Neil thought about his question.
Phillip sighed. “Look at us. We’re twenty-seven, and she’s twenty-five. Lots of people we know are not only married, but many of them have kids. To be honest with you, I’ve even been thinking of marriage lately.”
Neil stared at him blankly, without comment.
Phillip waved his hand through the air, swiped his fingers through his hair, then he began to wipe his palms up and down on his pant legs. “Women usually th
ink about that kind of thing before us guys do, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or too soon.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Phillip paused to calm himself, trying to keep from shouting. “If you’re not thinking that marriage is a possibility, what about Grace?”
“What about her?”
It almost hurt Phillip to say it, but he had to. “You know. You and Grace. Together. Married.”
Neil shrugged his shoulders. “She’s mentioned marriage a couple of times, but only because someone from church was getting married. You know. Showers and stuff like that. Women like to talk about those things. It doesn’t mean anything. Besides, I know that Grace isn’t interested in marriage.”
“But I think she is. Hasn’t she dropped little hints to you? Commented on engagement rings when you’re out shopping? Or talked about other people you know who are getting married, then waited for you to say something?”
Phillip had both seen and experienced women dropping such hints, none of which Grace had done with him, but that was because his relationship with Grace was different. They had done the opposite, based on friendship only, and had talked about marriage directly. She’d come right out and said that the right man hadn’t asked her, but she was only waiting for it to happen.
“Grace doesn’t do stuff like that. If she wanted to get married someday, she’d tell me. Besides, I don’t think we’re ready for that.”
All Phillip could do was stare at his best friend. “Maybe not now, but don’t you think that one day, someday in the future, you might want to get married?”
Neil shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”
The twist in Phillip’s stomach turned into a full-fledged knot. Unlike Neil, he had been thinking of marriage, and not just a generic concept of married life. Lately, he’d been thinking of what it would be like to be married to Grace.
“Don’t you think after all this time, you’d be feeling one way or the other about marrying Grace? If you don’t see marriage as a possibility, then why have you been going out with her for so long?”
Truly Yours Contemporary Collection December 2014 Page 30